Photograph by: Keith Gerein
, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Hectares of beans, peas, corn and cabbage ripening in a northeast Edmonton community garden have earned a reprieve from a pipeline company’s bulldozers.Plains Midstream, which requires the land to build part of its new Rainbow Pipeline II, said Wednesday it will hold off its construction crews until Oct. 1, giving enough time for the vegetables to properly mature and be harvested. But leaders at the Wecan community garden, near Alberta Hospital Edmonton, say the announcement comes too late for some of the growers. Francisco Huezo said the company initially gave little notice that it intended to start construction, sending fellow gardeners scrambling to salvage as much as possible this week. Many have already pulled their plants out of the ground or harvested vegetables that were not ready. “I certainly welcome the change in attitude, but it is late for some,” Huezo said. “We spent all day (Tuesday) picking what we could. There has been a lot of food wasted.”NDP MLA Deron Bilous said in a statement that he believes the company and Alberta Infrastructure, which owns the land, began taking the issue seriously only after the gardeners’ plight was made public. “Unfortunately, this is too little, too late for many of these gardeners. This Conservative government is not proactive, it doesn’t take action on its own initiative,” the statement said.The garden has been around for about 22 years. Of the 60 or 70 plots, many are used by low-income immigrant families who depend on growing their own produce to reduce their food budget. Many of the gardeners also donate a portion of their harvest to the Edmonton Food Bank.Huezo said growers are worried the pipeline installation will ruin the garden permanently, though Alberta Infrastructure has said the plan calls for the site to be made suitable for planting again next spring.“For us, this is not just a garden, but a community,” Huezo said. “This situation didn’t need to become a conflict, but the government decides to be proactive only when they need to save face. It’s sad that things had to go to that extreme to get people to react.”A spokeswoman for Alberta Infrastructure said the department has been asking Plains Midstream to negotiate with the co-op for some time.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.